FRANCES  HODGSON 


THE 

GOOD   WOLF 

BY 

FRANCES    HODGSON    BURNETT 


AUTHOR  OF   "  LITTLE   LORD  FAUNTLEROY, 

"THE    LITTLE    PRINCESS,"     ETC.,    ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED    BY 

HAROLD   SICHEL 


CHICAGO: 
M.  A.   DONOHUE  &    Co. 


UNIV.  OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY.  LOS 


ANGELES 


Copyright,  1907,  1908,  by 
HOLIDAY    PUBLISHING    CO. 
NEW  YORK 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall 
All  rights  reserved 

Published,  September?  1908 

Reprinted,  September,  1909 

Reprinted,  May,  1912 

Reprinted,  July,  1913 

Reprinted,  August,  1914 


SIACK 


CHAPTER   ONE 


HERE  was  once  a  fat  lit 
tle,  nice  little,  round  little 
boy  and  his  name  was  Tim. 
As  soon  as  people  looked 
at  him  they  began  to  laugh 
and  he  began  to  laugh  too. 
He  had  dimples  on  his  knees 
and  dimples  on  his  hands  and  dimples 
all  round  his  mouth.  That  was  because 
Fairies  liked  him  and  used  to  kiss  him 
whenever  they  flew  past  him,  and  they 
kissed  him  so  much  that  they  made  dim- 


pies.  He  had  a  lot  of  curly  hair  which 
made  a  lovely  mop.  In  fact  he  was  love- 
some  all  over  and  no  one  ever  denied  it. 
But  when  he  played  about — and  he  never 
stopped  playing — the  wind  blew  his  curly 
mop  into  tangles,  and  when  he  stood  on 
his  head  on  his  bed  or  the  grass  or  the 
nursery  floor,  that  rubbed  it  into  tan 
gles;  and  when  he  was  asleep  and  cuddled 
down  into  his  pillows  and  dreamed  de 
lightful  things,  that  ruffled  it  into  tangles. 
So  after  he  was  dressed  in  the  morning 
his  mamma  was  obliged  to  brush  them  all 
out  and  comb  out  all  the  knots  and  make 


him  look  soft  and  fluffy  and  lovesome  for 
the  rest  of  the  day.  Now  of  course  this 
might  have  been  very  horrid  for  both  of 
them.  He  might  have  wriggled  and  cried 
and  she  might  have  pulled  hard  and 
scolded.  But  nothing  of  the  sort  hap 
pened  because  they  were  both  nice  peo 
ple.  He  was  a  nice  people  and  she  was  a 
nice  people.  So  she  used  to  sit  down 
on  a  chair  by  a  window  which  looked 
right  into  a  big  maple  tree  where  birds 
lived,  and  Tim  used  to  turn  his  back  and 
stand  leaning  his  fat  little  warm  body 
against  her  knee  and  then  she  would  comb 


and  brush,  and  while  she  did  she  told  him 
the  Hair  Curling  Stories.  This  was  one 
of  them  and  it  was  called: 

THE    GOOD   WOLF. 

Once  there  was  another  little  boy  and 
his  name  was  Bartholomew  Herbert  Hu 
bert  Ellecompane  but  of  course  he  was  not 
called  all  that  at  once.  When  people 
wanted  him  they  only  said  Barty  and  he 
was  quite  satisfied,  because  you  see  that  if 
every  time  anyone  wanted  to  make  you  a 
present  of  a  beautiful  train  or  a  box  of 
caramels,  he  had  to  call  out  "Bartholo- 


new  Herbert  Hubert  Ellecompane "  be- 
rore  he  could  give  them  to  you,  a  great 
leal  of  time  would  be  wasted. 

Well,  Barty  was  a  nice  people.  If  he 
lad  not  been  you  would  probably  have 
icard  crying  and  seen  wriggling  in  his 
lursery  every  morning.  He  lived  in  the 
:ime  when  boys  wore  quite  long,  curly 
lair  and  if  your  hair  is  short  you  don't 
enow  how  much  combing  and  brushing 
:hat  takes.  But  Barty  was  so  cheerful 
:hat  he  did  not  mind  it  one  bit  and  even 
jsed  to  laugh  and  chuckle  and  sing  songs 
his  hair  was  being  brushed.  (When 


the  story  of  the  Good  Wolf  was  being  told 
to  Tim  his  mother  used  to  feel  his  fat  lit 
tle  body  shake  against  her  knee  when  he 
heard  this  part  because  he  always  laughed 
and  chuckled  at  it.) 

Indeed  Barty  was  a  great  blessing  and 
a  privilege.  He  lived  on  the  edge  of  a 
deep  forest,  and  he  was  very  fond  of  that 
forest  because  there  were  such  wonderful 
things  in  it — things  that  grew  and  things 
that  built  nests  and  things  that  burrowed 
under  the  earth  and  made  long  passages 
and  little  warm  caves  to  live  in — delight 
ful  things.  Besides  which  Barty  had  heard 


that  there  were  Fairies  there,  though  he 
had  never  seen  one. 

He  was  not  a  rich  litt.  ?  ^>oy,  in  fact  he 
was  quite  poor.  He  hail  ao  toys  at  all 
because  his  father  and  mother  had  no 
money.  When  he  went  to  bed.  He  used 
to  lie  and  think  of  all  tiir-  things  he 
would  like  to  have,  and  whe  i  he  vvent  to 
sleep  he  sometimes  dreamed  he  had  them, 
which  was  very  nice,  but  when  h;  /v?ken~d 
they  were  not  there. 

One  morning  in  the  winter  he  wished 
very  much  for  a  sled  because  when  he 
looked  out  of  the  window  all  the  ground 


was  covered  with  sparkling  snow  and  all 
the  trees  in  the  forest  were  loaded  with  it, 
and  the  sun  was  shining  on  glittering 
icicles  hanging  from  the  roof. 

"  I  want  a  sled,"  he  whispered  to  him 
self  as  he  pressed  his  little  nose  against  the 
glass.  « I  want  one — I  wish  I  had  one." 

If  he  had  not  been  a  blessing  and  a 
privilege  he  would  have  cried,  but  he 
actually  didn't.  He  scrambled  down  and 
asked  his  mother  to  put  on  his  thick  scar 
let  cap  and  coat  and  his  rubber  boots,  and 
he  went  striding  out  into  the  snow  like  a 
stout  little  robin  red  breast. 


He  stamped  across  the  road  and  stamped 
across  the  field  to  the  edge  of  his  beloved 
deep  forest,  because  he  wanted  to  see  what 
things  were  doing — the  things  that  build 
nests  and  the  things  that  burrow  and  make 
little  warm  caves  to  live  in. 

And  when  he  reached  the  very  edge 
where  the  thick  trees  began — there  he  saw 
sitting  up  on  its  haunches  and  looking 
straight  at  him  an  Immense  Wolf. 

He  gave  a  little  jump  and  turned  pale 
and  was  going  to  run  away  as  fast  as  his 
rubber  boots  would  carry  him,  when  he 
suddenly  stopped  because  he  could  not 


help  it.  The  Wolf  was  speaking  to 
him. 

« Do  not  be  frightened,"  he  said  in  a 
slow  deep  voice.  "And  do  not  run  away. 
I  am  a  Good  Wolf." 

Usually  wolves  don't  talk,  but  this  one 
did,  and  there  were  such  peculiar  things 
about  him  that  Barty  actually  forgot  to  be 
frightened. 

"  How — how  good  are  you  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  I  am  this  good,"  the  Wolf  said  quite 
solemnly.  "When  I  see  a  little  boy  who 
is  a  blessing  and  a  privilege  and  never  frets 
and  says  he  has  nothing  to  play  with,  and 


[10] 


never  wriggles  when  his  hair  is  brushed,  I 
am  his  Best  and  most  Intimate  Friend. 
But — "  and  his  nice  voice  became  quite 
fierce  and  growly  and  he  showed  all  his 
white  teeth,  "when  I  meet  a  boy  who  is  a 
little  pig  and  a  torment  and  who  makes 
life  a  burden  when  the  tangles  are  taken 
out — I  tear  him  from  limb  to  limb !  " 

"I  am  glad  I  don't  make  life  a  burden," 
Barty  said. 

"So  am  I,"  answered  the  Good  Wolfj 
"I  prefer  to  be  your  Intimate  Friend. 
Look  at  my  ears." 

He    need    not   have   said    that,    because 


Barty  had  been  looking  at  them  all  the 
time.  He  had  thought  them  very  queer  at 
first  because  they  were  so  very  big  and  tall 
and  pointed,  and  one  was  pink  and  one 
was  blue.  But  they  had  been  growing 
queerer  and  queerer  every  minute  because 
they  had  been  growing  bigger  and  bigger 
and  bigger — right  before  Barty' s  eyes. 

"Watch  them,"  said  the  Good  Wolf. 

He  shook  the  pink  ear.  Once  he  shook 
it — twice  he  shook  it — three  times  he 
shook  it.  And  out  of  it  fell  a  beautiful 
red  sled — exactly  the  kind  Barty  had 
dreamed  about. 


[12] 


"That  is  for  you,"  the  Good  Wolf  said. 
"It  is  a  present  from  your  Intimate 
Friend." 

"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!  Thank  you!  Thank 
you!  Thank  you!"  shouted  Barty  and  he 
danced  and  danced  about. 

"Look  again,"  the  Good  Wolf  said. 

He  shook  the  blue  ear.  Once  he 
shook  it — twice  he  shook  it — three  times 
he  shook  it.  And  he  shook  out  a 
splendid  train  with  ever  so  many  cars,  and 
a  key  to  wind  it  up  and  make  it  go- 
exactly  the  kind  Barty  had  dreamed 
about. 


[13] 


Barty  jumped  at  it  and  knelt  down  in 
the  snow. 

"Oh!  Oh!  Oh!"  he  kept  saying  be 
cause  he  could  scarcely  believe  he  was 
awake. 

Then  the  Good  Wolf  shook  the  pink 
ear  and  pennies  flew  out — pennies  and 
pennies  and  pennies — just  like  a  shower 
of  rain;  and  while  Barty  was  scrambling 
about  shouting  for  joy  and  picking  them 
up,  the  blue  ear  was  shaken  and  a  purse 
flew  out,  so  that  there  was  a  place  to  put 
the  pennies  in,  and  Barty  picked  up 
enough  to  stuff*  it  full  to  the  brim. 


He  just  danced  up  and  down. 

"What  a  Good  Wolf  you  are!"  he  said. 
"I  did  not  know  any  wolf  could  be  as 
good  as  this." 

«Ah!"  said  the  Good  Wolf.  "You 
don't  know  me! " 

(When  Tim's  mother  came  to  this  part 
of  the  story  he  used  to  jump  up  and  down 
and  laugh  for  joy  until  his  face  was  full  of 
dimples.) 

The  Good  Wolf  was  enjoying  himself  as 
much  as  Barty  was.  He  was  smiling  and 
smiling  and  wagging  his  tail. 

"Now,"   he  said,  "do  you  want  to  go 


[15] 


into  the  forest  and  see  the  things  that  build 
nests  and  the  things  that  burrow  under 
the  ground  and  make  little  warm  caves  to 
live  in?" 

"Please  yes!"  Barty  shouted.  "Please 
yes!" 

Then  the  Good  Wolf  shook  the  pink 
ear.  Once  he  shook  it — twice  he  shook 
it — three  times  he  shook  it — and  there 
flew  out  a  beautiful  set  of  harness  made  of 
red  leather  studded  with  gold  ornaments 
and  hung  with  tiny  sleigh  bells. 

That  made  Barty  stare  because  he  did 
not  know  what  it  was  for. 


[16] 


"It  is  for  me,"  the  Good  Wolf  said. 
"You  must  harness  me  to  your  sled  and  I 
will  draw  you  anywhere  in  the  world — 
just  anywhere." 

Barty  clapped  his  hands  and  jumped  up 
and  down  more  than  ever.  He  had  al 
ways  wanted  to  be  a  coachman  and  once 
he  dreamed  that  he  had  a  cart  and  horse. 

"  But  before  you  harness  me,"  the  Good 
Wolf  said,  "there  is  something  else  to  be 
done.  If  your  mother  were  to  see  a  wolf 
galloping  off  into  the  forest  with  her  boy 
she  would  not  know  he  was  a  Good  Wolf 
and  she  would  be  frightened,  and  if  we 


C'7] 


met  a  hunter  in  the  forest  he  would  not 
know  I  was  a  good  wolf  and  he  would 
shoot  me.  So  I  must  change  myself  into 
something  else." 

"Can  you?'"  cried  Barty,  and  his  eyes 
grew  as  big  as  saucers,  he  was  so  delighted. 

"Just  you  watch  me!"  said  the  Good 
Wolf. 

Once  he  shook  himself — twice  he  shook 
himself — three  times  he  shook  himself — 
and  then  something  very  funny  happened. 
While  he  was  shaking  himself  he  shook  so 
fast  that  he  looked  as  if  he  were  standing 
in  a  white  mist.  Then  he  stopped  quite 


[18] 


suddenly  and  stood  still.  And  actually 
instead  of  being  a  wolf  he  had  changed 
into  a  great  big  dog — the  kind  of  big  dog 
that  drags  sleds  over  the  snow  for  the  Es 
quimau  people — but  he  was  as  white  as 
the  snow  was. 

He  was  so  furry  and  handsome  that 
Barty  ran  to  him  and  hung  round  his  neck 
hugging  him.  He  had  so  wanted  a  dog 
and  this  was  exactly  the  kind  he  had 
dreamed  about. 

"  Put  on  my  harness.  Put  it  on !  "  said 
the  Good  Wolf.  "I  will  show  you  how." 

He  showed  him  how  to  do  it  all,  and 


[19] 


when  he  was  harnessed  to  the  sled  and 
stood  ready  with  the  scarlet  leather  straps 
and  gold  buckles  and  jingling  gold  bells 
shining  out  against  his  thick  furry  white 
coat,  he  looked  like  a  picture — so  did  the 
sled — so  did  Barty  in  his  red  coat  and  cap, 
dancing  up  and  down  with  his  whip  in  his 
hand. 

"Take  the  reins  and  jump  on,"  said  the 
Wolf. 

And  Barty  did  take  the  reins  and  jump 
on,  and  the  Good  Wolf  began  to  trot,  and 
the  scarlet  harness  shone,  and  the  bells  jin 
gled  and  jingled,  and  off  they  went  gliding 


[20] 


over  the  sparkling  snow  into  the  forest — 
the  deep,  deep  forest  where  things  built 
nests,  and  things  burrowed  under  the  earth 
and  made  long  passages  and  little  warm 
caves  to  live  in. 


CHAPTER  TWO 


CHAPTER  TWO 

F  you  never  drove  over  the 
sparkling  snow  in  a  red 
sled  drawn  by  a  big,  furry, 
white  dog  (who  is  really  a 
Good  Wolf  in  disguise)  you 
don't  know  how  delightful 
it  was  to  Barty  and  how  he 
laughed  with  joy  to  hear  the  gold  bells 
jingle,  jingle,  jingling  on  the  harness. 
When  they  trotted  and  jingled  and  slid 
into  the  forest  the  ground  was  covered 


[25] 


with  a  thick  white  carpet  over  which  the 
sled  went  flying.  The  branches  of  the 
trees  were  piled  with  white  softness  and 
the  tiny  pines  and  cedars,  which  were  only 
just  big  enough  to  stick  their  heads  above 
the  deep  snow,  wore  crowns  and  garlands 
and  icicle  diamonds.  And  everything 
seemed  so  still — so  still  that  you  could 
hear  a  whisper  a  mile  off. 

"Where  are  the  things  that  build  nests 
and  the  things  that  burrow  under  the 
earth?"  asked  Barty. 

"They  are  keeping  out  of  the  way. 
They  are  very  careful  when  the  snow  is  on 


[26] 


the  ground.  You  see  it  is  so  white  that 
when  they  come  out  to  hop  or  run  about 
on  it,  men  with  guns  and  dogs  can  see  them 
and  that  is  very  dangerous.  But  I  am  go 
ing  to  take  you  to  a  place  where  you  will 
see  plenty  of  them.  You  are  going  to  see 
a  Snow  Feast.  I  am  taking  you  now." 

"What  is  a  iSnow  Feast?"  Barty  asked, 
getting  quite  red  with  pleasure.  "It  does 
sound  esciting."  (He  meant  to  say  ex 
citing.) 

"It  is  exciting,"  answered  the  Good 
Wolf.  "  No  little  boy  in  the  world  has 
ever  seen  it." 


[27] 


"Has  any  big  boy  seen  it?'  asked 
Barty. 

"  No.  Not  one  person  in  all  the  world 
has  seen  it.  It  is  the  greatest  secret  there 
ever  was.  If  I  were  not  a  Good  Wolf 
I  could  not  see  it.  Only  the  very  nicest 
people  are  allowed.  It's  the  way  you  be 
have  when  knots  are  combed  out  of  your 
hair,  that  lets  you  in." 

Barty  was  so  joyful  that  he  wriggled 
on  his  sled  and  the  bells  on  the  reins  jin 
gled  and  jingled. 

"I  think  I'll  trot  rather  faster,"  the 
Good  Wolf  said. 


[98] 


"Would  you  mind  trotting  as  fast  as 
ever  you  can  ?  "  said  Barty. 

"I'll  trot  very  fast,"  the  Good  Wolf 
answered.  "I'm  excited  myself." 

So  he  trotted  faster  and  faster  and 
faster  and  faster,  and  the  sled  whizzed 
over  the  snow  and  wound  in  and  about 
between  the  tree  trunks  like  lightning, 
but  it  never  struck  against  anything,  or 
upset  or  even  joggled.  It  was  simply 
wonderful.  And  the  forest  was  wonder 
ful.  It  was  so  much  bigger  than  Barty 
had  ever  dreamed  of  its  being.  They  went 
on  and  on  and  on  and  on,  past  strange 


[29] 


trees,  and  strange  dells,  and  strange  caves, 
and  the  glittering  snow  was  piled  every 
where,  and  the  sky  grew  bluer  and  bluer, 
and  the  sun  shone  brighter  and  brighter. 

"It  must  be  a  Fairy  Wood!"  cried  out 
Barty  as  they  went  flying  along. 

At  that  very  minute  they  stopped.  They 
were  in  a  big  circle  with  trees  growing 
thick  and  tall  all  round  it.  The  snow 
looked  as  if  there  were  a  great  many  tiny 
hillocks  under  its  whiteness. 

"I  believe  this  is  a  rabbit  warren," 
Barty  said.  "That  is  why  the  snow  looks 
lumpy." 


[30] 


"You  wanted  to  see  what  the  things 
that  burrow  under  the  earth  are  doing  and 
I  am  going  to  show  you,"  answered  the 
Good  Wolf.  "Get  off  the  sled  and  take 
my  harness  off." 

"But  rabbits  are  afraid  of  dogs,"  said 
Barty. 

"They  are  not  afraid  of  me,"  said  the 
Good  Wolf.  "If  I  did  not  go  to  their 
Snow  Feast,  they  would  be  perfectly  miser 
able.  I'm  always  invited.  Take  my  har 
ness  off."  Barty  took  it  off  very  politely. 

"Now  put  it  on  the  sled  and  come 
along,"  the  Good  Wolf  ordered. 


[31] 


"But  rabbits  are  afraid  of  boys,"  said 
Baity. 

"They  are  not  afraid  of  boys  who 
are  a  blessing  and  a  privilege.  Come 


on. 


They  went  to  the  largest  hillock  and 
stood  by  it.  There  was  a  hole  in  it,  and 
Barty  saw  that  it  was  an  opening  into  a 
burrow. 

"Is  that  the  way  in  to  the  Snow 
Feast?'  he  asked.  "We  are  too  big  to 
get  in  there." 

"Watch  me,"  said  the  Good  Wolf. 

Once  he  shook  himself,  twice  he  shook 


[32] 


himself,  three  times  he  shook  himself,  and 
each  time  he  did  it  he  got  smaller  and 
smaller  until  after  the  third  time  he  was 
as  small  as  a  rabbit. 

"But  I  am  too  big,"  said  Barty. 

"Shake  yourself  once,  shake  yourself 
twice,  shake  yourself  three  times,"  said 
the  Good  Wolf,  "and  you  will  see  what 
will  happen." 

Once  Barty  shook  himself,  twice  Barty 
shook  himself,  three  times  Barty  shook 
himself,  and  he  did  see  what  happened. 
He  was  as  small  as  a  rabbit,  and  as  he 
stood  in  the  snow  in  his  red  coat  and  cap 


[33] 


and  his  tiny  rubber  boots,  he  was  too 
pretty  for  anything. 

"Now  for  the  Snow  Feast,"  the  Good 
Wolf  said.  "Just  follow  me." 

Barty  did  follow  him,  and  in  a  minute 
he  found  himself  in  a  place  like  a  wonder 
ful  little  town  under  the  earth.  There 
were  hundreds  of  long  narrow  passages 
like  corridors,  which  crossed  each  other 
and  ran  this  way  and  that,  and  seemed 
to  have  no  end  at  all.  The  walls  and 
roofs  were  smooth  and  brown,  and  were 
lighted  by  thousands  and  thousands  of 
glow-worms  that  had  fastened  themselves 


[34] 


in  beautiful  festoons  and  patterns  overhead 
and  along  the  sides  of  the  corridors.  It 
was  like  the  most  lovely  illumination. 

"Every  glow-worm  in  the  forest  comes 
to  the  Snow  Feast,"  the  Good  Wolf  ex 
plained.  "They  can't  dance  but  they  like 
to  look  on.  That  is  their  way  of  enjoy 
ing  themselves.  They  polish  their  lamps 
up  for  months  before  the  Feast  time." 

They  were  so  beautiful  to  look  at  that 
Barty  could  not  have  taken  his  eyes  from 
them  if  the  Good  Wolf  had  not  been  in 
such  a  hurry.  "We  must  not  stop  here," 
he  said.  "We  mustn't  really.  We  must 


[35] 


get  to  the  Hall  of  the  Snow  Feast.      Trot 
along — trot  along — trot  along." 

So  they  trotted  and  trotted  round  cor 
ners  into  other  passages,  and  round  other 
corners  into  other  passages,  in  and  out 
and  farther  and  farther  in  the  most  won 
derful  and  amusing  way.  The  festoons 
and  garlands  of  glow-worms  lighted  every 
thing  brilliantly,  and  presently  they  began 
to  see  all  sorts  of  interesting  little  animals 
trotting  along  too  as  if  they  were  all 
going  to  the  same  place.  The  delightful 
thing  was  that  no  animal  was  bigger  than 
a  small  rabbit  and  there  seemed  to  be 


[36] 


every  kind  of  animal  Barty  had  ever  heard 
of  in  his  life  or  had  ever  seen  pictures 
of.  There  were  little  elephants  and  little 
rhinoceroses,  and  little  lions  and  tigers 
and  leopards  and  giraffes,  and  wolves 
and  foxes  and  bears,  and  tiny  horses  and 
sheep  and  cows,  and  they  were  all  trot 
ting  along  as  if  they  were  as  happy  as 
possible. 

"Oh!"  Barty  cried  out.  "It  looks  as 
if  a  Noah's  Ark  had  come  alive.  Look 
at  that  tiny  elephant  trotting  by  the  lion! 
Why  don't  they  fight?" 

"Nothing    fights   at   the    Snow    Feast. 


[37] 


Every  one  is  quite  tame.  Lions  and  lambs 
talk  things  over,  and  cats  and  robins 
are  intimate  friends.  Trot  along — trot 
along." 

Barty  trotted  along,  but  he  could  not 
help  asking  questions.  He  was  so  happy 
and  excited. 

"How  did  they  make  themselves  so 
little?"  he  said.  "Did  they  shake  them 
selves  before  they  came  down  into  the 
burrow?" 

"Yes." 

Barty  looked  at  the  elephant,  and  re 
membering  how  monstrously  big  ele- 


[38] 


phants  are  when  you  see  them  at  a  circus, 
he  could  not  help  laughing  aloud. 

"Once  he  shook  himself,  twice  he  shook 
himself,  three  times  he  shook  himself,  and 
then  he  grew  as  little  as  that,"  he  said. 
« Oh !  I  wish  I  could  take  him  home  to 
play  with." 

"We  will  see  what  we  can  do  about 
that,"  the  Good  Wolf  said,  just  as  if  any 
thing  nice  in  the  world  might  happen  if 
you  once  came  to  a  Snow  Feast. 

At  the  moment  he  said  that,  they  turned 
another  corner  and  there  they  were  in  a 
very  much  bigger  passage,  which  ended 


[39] 


in  an  archway  toward  which  all  the  little 
animals  were  making  their  way.  This 
archway  was  the  entrance  to  a  great  Hall 
which  was  so  big  that  you  could  not  see 
the  end  of  it.  It  was  lighted  by  myriads 
and  myriads  of  glow-worm  lamps,  and 
beautifully  decorated  with  sea  shells  and 
flowers  made  of  snow  and  icicle  jewels, 
and  there  was  music  being  played  some 
where,  and  in  one  part  there  were  tables 
loaded  with  every  kind  of  delightful  thing 
to  feast  on.  It  was  the  most  beautiful 
place  that  Barty  had  ever  beheld,  and  he 
really  could  not  help  jumping  a  little 


[40] 


for  joy  when  he  got  inside.  A  little 
lion  who  had  just  trotted  in  saw  him  and 
laughed. 

"  I  feel  like  that  too ! "  he  said,  and  he 
gave  two  or  three  funny  little  jumps  him 
self. 

"I  didn't  know  you  could  talk,"  said 
Barty. 

"We  can  all  talk  at  the  Snow  Feast," 
said  the  little  lion.  "That's  the  fun  of 

it."        y     -    .  /  ;vv  ||i 

"May  I  pat  you?"  Barty  asked. 
"Yes,"  the  little  lion  answered.     "May 
I  pat  you?" 


[41] 


That  made  Barty  laugh. 

"You  may  if  you  like,"  he  said,  "but 
I  did  not  know  animals  wanted  to  pat 
people." 

"They  don't,"  said  the  little  lion,  mak 
ing  a  merry  little  skip.  "I  just  said  that 
for  fun."  And  then  Barty  and  he  laughed 
like  anything. 

They  were  intimate  friends  from  that 
minute,  and  the  Good  Wolf,  who  had  to 
go  to  speak  to  some  one  on  business,  left 
them  together.  Then,  I  can  tell  you,  fun 
began.  The  little  lion  brought  another 
little  lion  to  Barty,  and  then  he  brought 


two  fat  little  roly-poly  bears  who  were 
twin  brothers;  and  then  he  brought  a  tiny 
elephant,  and  a  baby  hippopotamus,  and 
three  beautiful  kitten  leopards,  and  the 
most  lovely  little  snow-white  horse  with 
a  long  mane  and  a  tail  almost  sweeping 
the  ground. 

Barty  could  scarcely  believe  his  eyes. 
When  the  little  elephant  tossed  up  his 
trunk  and  trumpeted  for  him  he  almost 
shouted. 

"It  seems  as  if  you  couldn't  be  real," 
he  said. 

"We  are  real,"  said  the  small  elephant. 


[43] 


<But  we  are  only  like  this  once  a  year 
and  no  other  boy  has  ever  seen  us." 

And  suddenly,  just  as  he  spoke,  they 
heard  a  tramping  and  tramping  and  the 
sound  of  music  grew  louder  and  louder 
as  if  it  were  coming  nearer,  and  the  little 
elephant  threw  up  his  trunk  and  trum 
peted  very  loud  as  if  he  were  saluting 
royalty. 

"What  is  it?  What  is  it?"  cried  Barty. 
"Who's  coming?  Who's  coming?' 

He  said  it  to  the  Good  Wolf,  who  at 
that  minute  came  running  back  in  a  great 
hurry,  pushing  his  way  through  the  crowd. 


[44] 


"Get  into  line!"  he  said.  "Get  into 
line!  They  are  entering  the  hall — their 
Royal  Highnesses,  the  Noah's  Ark  Rab 
bits!" 


[4SJ 


CHAPTER    THREE 


ARTY'S  eyes  grew  round 
and  big  with  excitement. 
A  wonderful  procession 
was  entering  the  hall.  First 
came  a  band  of  tiny  jet 
black  monkeys  playing  on 
golden  trumpet  s — the 
Drum  Major  walking  backward  before 
them  and  twirling  his  staff;  then  came 
two  black  and  two  white  rabbits,  and  they 
were  carrying  a  throne  on  which  sat  two 


[49] 


old,  old,  old,  white  rabbits.  They  were 
so  old  that  their  hair  had  grown  long 
enough  to  hang  down  below  their  feet, 
and  their  eyes  were  large  and  strange  and 
had  an  ancient,  solemn  look  in  them,  as 
if  they  had  been  gazing  at  the  rabbit  world 
for  thousands  of  years.  Barty  thought 
their  large,  strange  eyes  looked  nice,  and 
he  said  so  to  the  Good  Wolf. 

"They  look  kind,"  he  whispered. 

"They  were  the  two  rabbits  who  went 
into  the  Ark  with  Noah,"  the  Good  Wolf 
whispered  back.  "And  they  have  lived 
so  long  and  grown  so  wise  that  they  have 


[50] 


found  out  that  the  best  thing  in  the  world 
is  to  be  kind.  They  never  find  fault  with 
any  one.  They  know  too  much." 

"But  I  thought  they  died  long  ago/' 
said  Barty. 

"Everybody  thought  so,"  answered  his 
friend.  "But  they  didn't.  They  are  the 
great,  great,  great,  great,  great,  great 
grandfather  and  grandmother  of  all  the 
rabbits  in  the  world." 

"How  interesting,"  said  Barty,  jumping 
up  and  down  a  little.  "How  'normously 
interesting!  v 

The  procession  behind  them  was  made 


[51] 


up  of  their  courtiers,  and  they  were  all 
either  black  or  white  rabbits — a  black  one 
and  a  white  one — a  black  one  and  a  white 
one.  They  all  wore  gold  collars  and  gold 
stars  on  their  breasts.  These  were  the 
Order  of  the  Ancient  Rabbit. 

The  black  monkey  musicians  took  their 
places  on  a  little  band  stand,  and  as  soon 
as  the  bearers  of  the  throne  set  it  down  at 
the  end  of  the  hall,  a  grand  blast  of  golden 
trumpets  was  heard,  and  every  one  of  the 
animals  made  a  profound  bow. 

Then  the  gentleman  Noah's  Ark  Rabbit 
waved  his  long-haired  front  foot  gracefully. 


[52] 


"Greeting,  brothers  and  sisters,"  he 
said.  "Welcome  to  the  Snow  Feast. 
What  is  first  to  be  done?" 

The  Good  Wolf  whispered  to  a  very 
grand  Court  Rabbit  who  was  standing 
near.  He  carried  a  wand  and  was  black 
all  over,  except  for  a  white  place  on  his 
breast,  which  made  him  look  as  if  he  were 
in  evening  dress,  and  gave  him  a  very 
fashionable  air.  The  Court  Rabbit  waved 
his  wand. 

"Your  Majesty,  I  have  a  new  guest  to 
present  to  you,"  he  said,  and  he  made  a 
sign  to  Barty. 


[53] 


"Walk  forward  and  make  a  bow/'  the 
Good  Wolf  said.  "You  are  going  to  be 
introduced." 

Barty  did  as  he  was  told,  and  made  a 
very  nice  bow  indeed.  His  Majesty,  the 
Noah's  Ark  Rabbit,  pointed  to  him  with  a 
benevolent,  puzzled  look. 

"What  kind  of  little  animal  is  that?" 
he  inquired.  "  I  seem  to  remember  seeing 
some  like  him  when  I  was  in  the  Ark,  but 
I  cannot  remember  what  they  were  called." 

The  Good  Wolf  answered  him. 

"He  is  a  boy,  your  Majesty,"  he  said. 
"There  are  a  good  many  of  them  on  the 


[54] 


top."  (He  meant  on  the  top  of  the  earth, 
outside  rabbit  burrows.) 

"Turn  round,  Boy,"  said  the  Noah's 
Ark  Rabbit,  "and  let  me  look  at  you." 
And  when  Barty  very  politely  turned 
round  and  round,  his  Majesty  scratched 
himself  behind  his  long  ear  and  repeated, 
"Boy-Boy-Boy?"  as  if  he  were  trying  to 
remember  something,  and  at  last  he  turned 
to  his  wife  and  said,  "My  dear,  do  you 
remember  anything  about  a  Boy?" 

The  Queen  Noah's  Ark  Rabbit  had  an 
ivory  cane  which  she  leaned  on  when  she 
walked,  and  she  lifted  it  and  began  to  poke 


L55] 


Barty  gently  all  over,  as  if  she  were  trying 
to  find  out  what  he  was  made  of.  She 
was  a  kind  looking  old  thing,  and  suddenly 
she  began  to  smile. 

"Of  course  I  remember,"  she  said, 
"and  so  will  you  if  you  think  a  moment. 
Who  saved  us  from  the  Flood  by  taking  us 
into  the  Ark?  He  would  take  us.  And 
he  cried  like  anything  when  his  grand 
father  chose  another  pair.  Who  was  it?" 

His  Majesty  slapped  his  knee  and  rocked 
with  laughter. 

"It  was  a  Boy!"  he  said.  "It  was  a  Boy 
as  sure  as  I  am  a  Noah's  Ark  Rabbit.' 


[56] 


"It  was  a  little  Boy  of  Shem's,  and  he 
had  made  pets  of  us,"  said  her  Majesty. 
"He  kept  us  in  a  hutch,  and  when  the 
animals  were  picked  out  in  pairs  he 
huddled  us  in  his  arms  and  ran  to  his 
grandfather,  and  said,  <  Grandfather,  you 
must  take  these — you  must.  If  they  are 
left  behind  I  shall  stay  with  them  and  let 
the  Flood  drown  me!'  And  though  his 
grandfather  had  picked  out  a  much  bigger 
pair,  he  was  obliged  to  take  us  or  let  the 
Boy  be  drowned." 

His  Majesty  slapped  his  knee  again. 
"And  that  is  why  we  are  here  to-day ! " 


[57] 


he  exclaimed.  "  How  did  we  forget  about 
Boys!" 

"It  was  because  the  Flood  frightened 
us  so  much,  that  as  soon  as  we  were  let 
out  of  the  Ark  we  ran  away  as  fast  as  we 
could,  and  burrowed  deep  into  the  earth, 
and  we  never  have  been  on  top  since,  so 
we  never  have  seen  any  until  this  minute. 
Dear!  Dear!  Dear!'  said  her  Majesty. 
"Deary,  deary  me!' 

Barty  quite  blushed  with  pleasure. 
They  were  such  nice,  old,  long-haired, 
aged,  aged  benevolent  things. 

"I    am   very   glad    that   I    am    a    boy," 


[58] 


he    said,    "if   it    was    a    boy    who    saved 
you." 

"He  is  the  nicest  little  animal  I  ever 
saw,"  said  his  Majesty  enthusiastically. 
"I  am  perfectly  delighted  to  see  him.  He 
must  be  led  to  the  feasting  table  and  given 
everything  he  likes  to  eat.  He  must  en 
joy  himself.  He  must  stuff  his  pockets 
full  of  good  things  to  carry  home.  What 
can  I  give  you  for  a  Christmas  present, 
Boy?  Is  there  anything  in  all  the  wide 
world  I  can  do  for  you?  Goodness  gra 
cious,  mercy  me!  You  are  the  preserver 
of  all  our  race.  You  are  a  Boy ! " 


[59] 


He  was  so  delighted  that  he  spoke  as 
fast  as  lightning,  and  his  words  tumbled 
one  over  the  other;  seeing  which,  the  Good 
Wolf  spoke  again. 

"Your  Majesty,  he  is  not  only  a  boy," 
he  said,  "but  he  is  a  blessing  and  a  privi 
lege,  which  all  boys  are  not." 

"Then  he  ought  to  have  a  Christmas 
present.  He  ought  to  have  a  hundred 
thousand  million  Christmas  presents,"  said 
the  Noah's  Ark  Rabbit,  looking  round, 
and  growing  so  excited  that  all  his  long, 
white  fur  fluffed  up  and  stood  out  all  over 
him.  "Are  there  any  about  here 


are 


[60] 


there  any  about?  Goodness  gracious, 
mercy  me!  There  ought  to  be  Christmas 
presents  on  every  side." 

Her  dear  old  Majesty,  his  wife,  began 
to  look  about  her  too,  waving  her  fore- 
paws  in  her  inexpressible  agitation.  (In 
expressible  agitation  means  that  she  was 
so  excited  that  she  did  not  know  what 
to  say.)  "I  don't  see  any!  I  don't  see 
any!  I  don't  see  any!v  she  exclaimed. 
«Oh  my!  Oh  my!  Oh  my!  Oh  my!" 

"Never  since  I  came  out  of  the  Ark," 
said  his  Majesty,  "have  I  known  such  a 
dreadful  situation.  A  Boy — a  Boy  like 


[6x] 


this,  and  no  presents!  The  place  ought 
to  be  strewn  with  them — it  ought  to  be 
piled  up  with  them  —  it  ought  to  be 
stuffed — and  crammed  and  bulging  with 
them!" 

(I  wish  you  knew  how  Tim  used  to 
chuckle  when  this  part  was  told.) 

Then  the  Good  Wolf  spoke  aloud  with 
a  most  agreeable  smile,  and  unless  you 
have  seen  a  Good  Wolf  you  can  never 
know  how  agreeable  his  smile  can  be. 

"I  know  what  he  would  like,  your 
Majesty,"  he  said. 

"Do  you!      Do  you?"  said  the  Noah's 


[62] 


Ark  Rabbit,  his  fur  fluffing  up  and  stand 
ing  out  still  more  because  he  was  so  in 
terested.  "Then  speak  up — speak  up — 
speak  up!  Don't  hang  back,  for  goodness 
mercy's  sake!" 

"  What  he  would  like  most  of  all  would 
be  that  your  Majesty  should  allow  some  of 
your  subjects  to  be  his  friends  and  play 
with  him,"  answered  the  Good  Wolf. 

"Would  he — would  he  really?'  said 
the  Noah's  Ark  Rabbit.  "Why,  that 
seems  a  trifle." 

"Oh!"  cried  Barty,  "if  they  only  might, 
if  they  only  would.  I  should  never  want 


[63] 


any  toys  again  as  long  as  I  lived!"  and  he 
clasped  his  hands. 

"Well,  I  can  do  that  for  you  in  the 
shake  of  a  rabbit's  tail,"  said  his  Majesty. 
"How  many  would  you  like?" 

"Enough,"  answered  Barty,  rather  tim 
idly,  because  he  was  so  afraid  he  might  be 
asking  too  much,  "enough  to  play  circus, 
so  that  I  could  be  the  ring-master.  I've 
so  often  wanted  to  be  a  ring-master,  and 
once  I  dreamed  I  was  one." 

The  Noah's  Ark  Rabbit  put  his  hand 
into  a  pocket  under  his  long  white  fur, 
and  he  drew  out  a  tiny  whip. 


[64] 


"Take  that  and  crack  it  as  loud  as  ever 
you  can,  and  see  what  will  happen,"  he 
commanded. 

Barty  took  it  and  swung  it  as  he  had 
seen  ring-masters  do,  and  he  made  it  crack 
beautifully.  What  happened  was  that  all 
the  little  animals,  every  one  of  them,  turned 
their  heads  to  look  at  him. 

"Crack  it  again,"  said  the  Noah's  Ark 
Rabbit. 

When  Barty  cracked  it  again  the  little 
animals  began  to  crowd  into  a  circle  all 
round  him. 

"Now,  my  dear,"  said  the  Queen  Noah's 


® 


Ark  Rabbit,  "you  just  walk  out  and  choose 
the  ones  you  would  like  best,  and  ask  them 
if  they  will  come  and  play  with  you  when 
they  hear  your  whip  crack." 

"I  think  I  must  be  in  a  dream  now,"  said 
Barty,  as  he  began  to  go  round  the  circle. 

"Will  you  be  my  friend  and  come  and 
play  with  me?"  he  said  to  the  little  lion, 
and  the  little  lion  frisked  and  said:  "Yes! 
Yes!  Yes!" 

And  then  he  went  to  some  little  horses 
and  to  some  more  little  lions,  and  to  four 
elephants  and  a  rhinoceros  and  a  hippo 
potamus,  and  a  little  tiger  and  two  tiny 


[66] 


polar  bears,  and  they  all  cried  out:  "Yes! 
Yes!"  until  at  last  he  had  enough  animals 
to  make  a  most  splendid  circus.  There 
was  so  much  shouting  of  "Yes!  Yes! 
Yes!"  that  he  began  to  rub  his  eyes. 

"Are  you  sure  I  am  not  dreaming?"  he 
asked  the  Good  Wolf. 

"Take  him  to  the  feasting  tables,"  said 
the  Noah's  Ark  Rabbit,  "and  fill  him  to 
the  brim.  He  will  know  then  that  he  is 
not  dreaming." 

Barty's  eyes  sparkled,  because  by  this 
time  he  was  very  hungry,  and  when  the 
Good  Wolf  led  him  into  another  illumi- 


[67] 


nated  hall  where  all  the  nice  things  to  eat 
that  are  in  the  world  seemed  spread  before 
him  on  tables,  you  can  imagine  what  he 
did.  He  ate  just  as  much  as  a  little  boy 
could  eat  after  getting  up  early  on  a  frosty 
morning  and  forgetting  all  about  his  break 
fast.  But  at  last  a  sweet  smile  spread  over 
his  rosy  face,  and  he  drew  a  long,  long 
breath  and  said: 

«  My  belt  is  very  tight  by  now.  Thank 
you  ever  so  much,  Good  Wolf.  I  never 
saw  anything  as  beautiful  as  the  Snow 
Feast  is,  and  I  should  like  to  stay  until  it 
is  quite  over;  but  if  I  do  not  go  home  my 


[68] 


mother  will  be  frightened.  Do  you  think 
there  is  time  for  me  to  play  a  little  with 
my  circus  before  I  go?" 

"Yes,  there  is,"  the  Good  Wolf  answered. 
"I'll  look  after  the  time.  Come  along.  I 
see  four  little  elephants  and  three  lions 
looking  over  here  this  minute,  as  if  they 
wanted  to  talk  to  you." 

All  the  games  Barty  played  and  all  the 
things  he  did  that  day,  it  would  take  chap 
ters  and  chapters  to  tell  about.  When  the 
Good  Wolf  told  him  it  was  time  to  go,  he 
was  being  ring-master,  and  he  was  laugh 
ing  and  shouting  with  glee.  And  all  the 


little  animals  were  crowding  round  watch 
ing  the  elephants  stand  on  their  heads,  and 
the  horses  read  things  written  on  black 
boards.  The  Noah's  Ark  Rabbits  them 
selves  were  perfectly  delighted,  and  said 
they  had  never  enjoyed  a  Snow  Feast  as 
much  before. 

"You  must  come  next  year,"  they  said, 
"and  the  next,  and  the  next,  and  the  next, 
and  the  next — "  They  were  even  going 
on  murmuring  "the  next  and  the  next," 
when  Barty  went  away. 

"Now,"  said  the  Good  Wolf,  "trot 
along — trot  along — trot  along." 


[70] 


And  they  did  trot  along,  down  corri 
dors  and  round  corners,  and  through  gal 
leries,  and  in  and  out,  and  faster  and  faster, 
until  at  last  they  came  to  the  hole  they 
had  crept  in  through;  and  they  crept  out 
through  it,  and  found  themselves  once 
more  standing  in  the  sparkling  snow  with 
the  circle  of  tall  trees  round  them. 

Barty  clapped  his  hands. 

"I  never  had  such  a  splendid  time  in 
my  life,"  he  said.  "I  never  had  such 
beautiful  things  to  eat.  I  never  even 
dreamed  of  anything  as  nice  as  the  Snow 
Feast." 


"Neither  did  I,"  answered  the  Good 
Wolf.  "  I  have  nothing  like  it  even  in  the 
pink  ear  or  the  blue  one.  Now  we  must 
shake  ourselves." 

So  they  shook  themselves  once — they 
shook  themselves  twice — they  shook  them- 
selves  three  times — and  there  they  stood 
just  the  right  size  again.  And  the  Good 
Wolf  slipped  into  his  harness,  and  Barty 
jumped  on  the  red  sled,  and  the  bells  jin 
gled  and  jingled;  and  off  they  went,  glid 
ing  over  the  sparkling  snow,  home  through 
the  deep  forest  where  things  built  nests, 
and  things  burrowed  under  the  earth,  and 


®, 


made  long  passages  and  little  warm  caves 
to  hide  in;  and  where  there  were  wonder 
ful  Snow  Feasts,  which  only  one  little  boy 
in  all  the  world  had  seen  or  heard  of,  and 
his  name  was  Barty. 


{T9J 


CHAPTER   FOUR 


CHAPTER    FOUR 


HEN    the   Good  Wolf  had 
drawn    the    red    sled    with 
Barty  on  it  nearly  to   the 
edge  of  the  deep  forest,  he 
stopped.     "Now,"  he  said, 
"you  must  get  off  and  un 
harness  me." 
Then  Barty  suddenly  thought  of  some 
thing.      "What  shall  I  say  when  my  mother 
asks  me  where  I  got  my  new  sled?" 

"Well,"   answered   the    Good   Wolf,  "I 


[77] 


think  I  shall  have  to  be  a  kind  of  secret. 
Mothers  are  very  easily  frightened  and  I 
wouldn't  frighten  a  mother  for  anything. 
You  might  tell  her  it  is  a  present  from  an 
intimate  friend,  and  if  she  asks  what  his 
name  is  you  can  say  it  is  Mr.  Wolf.  Have 
you  got  your  whip  safe?' 

Barty  took  it  out  of  his  pocket.  Now 
that  he  was  his  real  size  again  it  looked 
very  tiny. 

"I  would  advise  you  to  go  into  a  quiet 
place  in  the  forest  when  you  crack  that 
whip,"  said  the  Good  Wolf.  "If  any 
one  came  when  you  were  playing  circus 


[78] 


your  little  animals  would  suddenly  grow 
big  again  and  that  would  be  very  incon 
venient." 

"There  is  a  very  quiet  place  I  know  of," 
answered  Barty.  "It  is  my  secret  playing 
place.  You  have  to  creep  through  bushes 
to  get  to  it.  It  is  round  and  has  grass  on 
it.  -It  will  make  a  beautiful  circus.  But 
when  will  you  come  back  and  see  me?" 

"I  don't  know  yet,  but  I  will  come 
some  time,"  answered  the  Good  Wolf. 
"I  am  glad  I  happened  to  be  at  the  edge 
of  the  forest  this  morning.  There  is  some 
pleasure  in  taking  a  boy  like  you,  who  is 


[79] 


a  blessing  and  a  privilege,  to  a  Snow 
Feast.  Now  I  must  go." 

Once  he  shook  himself,  twice  he  shook 
himself,  three  times  he  shook  himself,  and 
he  was  a  wolf  again. 

"Good-bye,"  he  said,  "until  we  meet 
again."  And  off  he  trotted. 

Barty  went  back  to  his  house  dragging 
his  red  sled  after  him  and  thinking  about 
things,  until  his  cheeks  were  as  red  as  his 
coat. 

His  mother  was  very  busy  making  bread, 
but  when  she  saw  him  she  was  so  surprised 
that  she  stopped  kneading  her  dough. 


[80] 


"Where  did  you  get  that  splendid  sled ? ' 
she  asked. 

"Some  one  in  the  forest  gave  it  to  me," 
answered  Barty.  "He  said  he  was  my 
intimate  friend  and  his  name  was  Mr. 
Wolf.  I  think,"  and  Barty  hesitated  a 
little  as  he  remembered,  "I  do  think  he 
was  a  kind  of  a  fairy." 

His  mother  laughed.  "I  should  think 
he  was  too,  if  he  gave  me  such  a  nice 
present  as  that,"  she  said,  and  she  went  on 
with  her  kneading. 

Barty  played  with  his  sled  all  the  rest 
of  the  day,  and  at  night  he  put  it  in  a 


[81] 


very  safe  corner  in  the  woodshed.  Before 
he  went  to  sleep  he  hid  the  tiny  whip 
under  his  pillow. 

"But  I  do  feel,  now  that  I  can't  see 
either  of  them,"  he  whispered  to  himself 
as  he  lay  in  the  dark,  « I  do  feel  as  if  it 
must  have  been  a  dream.  Was  it?"  And 
he  had  to  put  his  hand  under  his  pillow 
and  touch  the  whip  before  he  could  go  to 
sleep. 

It  was  curious,  but  the  first  thing  when 
he  wakened  in  the  morning  he  found  him 
self  sitting  up  in  bed  and  rubbing  his  eyes 
and  saying  aloud  to  himself: 


[82] 


"Was  it?      Was  it?      Was  it?" 

Then  he  remembered  the  tiny  whip 
and  he  darted  his  hand  under  his  pil 
low,  but  he  felt  nothing.  He  lifted  the 
pillow  and  looked  under  it,  but  he 
saw  nothing.  Fie  jumped  out  of  bed 
and  shook  the  sheet  and  shook  it,  but 
he  felt  nothing.  The  tiny  whip  was 
gone. 

He  just  stood  and  stared,  and  then  he 
said  rather  slowly: 

"Well,  if  it  was  a  dream  it  was  the 
nicest  one  I  ever  had  and  I'm  glad  I  had 
it.  Perhaps  some  night  I  shall  have  it 


[83] 


again."  And  he  dressed  himself  quickly 
and  ran  downstairs. 

And  this  was  the  first  thing  his  mother 
said  to  him  as  she  came  in  from  the  wood 
shed: 

"I've  just  been  looking  at  your  new 
sled,  Barty,  and  it  is  the  nicest  one  I  ever 
saw." 

"Oh!"  Barty  almost  shouted,  "is  it  in 
the  woodshed  ?  Is  it?"  And  he  flew  out 
to  look,  and  there  it  was!  And  it  was 
just  as  red  and  just  as  jingling  and  just 
as  beautiful  as  ever. 

"The    Good    Wolf   wasn't    a    dream," 


[84] 


he    cried   joyfully.      "And    so    the    other 


wasn't.' 


But  as  the  days  went  by  and  he  wished 
more  and  more  that  he  could  find  the 
little  whip  and  make  sure  that  the  tiny 
lions  and  tigers  and  elephants  had  been 
real,  he  used  to  go  and  sit  down  very  hard 
on  the  red  sled  and  say  out  loud  ever  so 
many  times: 

"It  wasn't  a  dream  —  it  wasn't — it 
wasn't — it  wasn't  one!'  and  that  would 
make  him  feel  quite  cheerful. 

One  quite  beautiful  morning,  after  the 
snow  had  gone  away,  he  was  in  his  bed- 


[85] 


room  and  he  suddenly  caught  sight  of 
something  bright,  shining  under  a  ward 
robe. 

"I  wonder  what  that  is,"  he  said,  feel 
ing  his  heart  begin  to  beat.  He  crept  to 
the  wardrobe  as  if  he  thought  the  bright 
thing  would  get  away  if  it  heard  him,  and 
suddenly  he  dropped  on  his  knees,  thrust 
his  arm  far  under  the  wardrobe,  quite 
against  the  wall,  and  pulled  out  the  bright 
thing — and  it  was  the  whip.  The  bright 
part  was  the  gold  handle.  It  had  rolled 
out  from  under  the  pillow  and  had  rested 
on  the  edge  of  the  bed  until  it  had  been 


[86] 


shaken  off  and  rolled  under  the  wardrobe 
and  stayed  there.  Barty  gave  a  shout. 

"There,"  he  cried,  "I  said  it  wasn't  a 
dream — and  it  wasn't  one! ' 

He  was  so  excited  that  he  almost  did 
a  dangerous  thing.  He  almost  cracked 
the  whip  right  in  his  bedroom,  but  he  re 
membered  just  in  time  that  if  he  did,  and 
the  little  animals  came  and  his  mother 
came  too,  they  would  grow  big  all  at  once 
at  sight  of  her,  and  it  would  be  enough  to 
frighten  any  mother  to  death — besides  the 
room  being  so  small  that  it  wouldn't  hold 
even  a  single  elephant. 


"I'd  better  be  careful,"  he  said  to  him 
self,  "I'm  glad  I  thought  of  that  in  time." 

When  he  got  outside  he  really  couldn't 
wait  until  he  got  into  the  deep  forest,  and 
was  under  the  trees,  flying  along  the  path 
which  led  to  the  bushes  which  hid  his 
secret  place.  It  was  a  very  secret  place. 
You  had  to  crawl  through  a  sort  of  tunnel 
until  you  crawled  through  a  hole  into  a 
clear  green  place  with  a  close  hedge  of 
bushes  round  it,  except  where  there  was 
a  high  rock  at  the  back — a  great  big  rock 
with  a  cave  in  it.  Barty  had  never  been 
into  the  cave  because  it  rather  frightened 


[88] 


him.  He  thought  it  looked  like  a  Robber's 
Cave,  though  he  had  never  seen  any  rob 
bers  about,  and  anyway  there  was  only  a 
long  narrow  slit  in  the  rock  for  any  one  to 
squeeze  in  and  out  of.  A  fat  robber  could 
never  have  got  in.  Barty  crawled  through 
the  hole  in  the  bushes  and  stood  up  on 
his  feet,  quite  out  of  breath.  His  eyes 
were  sparkling  with  joy. 

"Now  then,"  he  said  when  he  had  his 
breath  again.  "Now  then!"  And  he 
stood  in  the  middle  of  the  green  circle  and 
cracked  his  whip. 

It  was  such  a  little  whip  that  it  made 


only  a  little  crack.  And  at  first  nothing 
came. 

"Shake  yourself  once — shake  yourself 
twice — shake  yourself  three  times,"  he 
said.  "  Perhaps  I  had  better  crack  it  three 
times."  And  three  times  he  cracked  it  as 
loud  as  ever  he  could.  After  he  had  done 
it  he  stood  quite  still  and  listened. 

He  listened  and  listened,  and  the  deep 
forest  seemed  so  still  that  he  could  hear 
himself  breathe.  He  listened  and  listened 
again,  and  it  seemed  so  still  that  he  felt 
as  if  he  could  hear  himself  think.  Then 
he  listened  again,  and  he  heard  a  faint, 


[90] 


faint  rustle.  It  sounded  far  away  and  he 
did  not  know  where  it  came  from.  But 
presently  he  knew  it  was  coming  nearer. 
Yes,  it  was  coming  nearer  and  nearer  and 
it  seemed  to  be  coming  from  the  right  side 
and  from  the  left  and  from  before  and  be 
hind  him,  and  it  grew  louder  and  louder 
until  it  sounded  like  scampering  and  like 
shuffling  and  like  jumping  and  like  little 
trotting  hoofs.  And  in  about  three  min 
utes  two  little  lions  jumped  over  the  bushes 
and  two  little  tigers  followed  them  and 
two  little  leopards  after  them,  and  two 
little  bears  came  shuffling  through  the  hole 


[91] 


at  the  end  of  the  tunnel,  and  two  tiny 
hippopotamuses  and  two  rhinoceroses,  and 
two  lovely  elephants  who  marched  into 
the  middle  of  the  ring  and  threw  up  their 
trunks  and  trumpeted;  and  last  of  all  four 
splendid  little  horses,  one  snow  white  and 
one  jet  black  and  two  with  beautiful  brown 
spots  on  them,  leaped  over  the  hedge  and 
made  a  bow  to  Barty,  bending  their  heads 
and  scraping  with  their  feet,  and  wheeled 
about  and  began  to  gallop  round  and 
round  the  ring  as  fast  as  ever  they  could, 
just  as  if  they  were  at  a  real  circus. 

"Oh,  I  said  it  wasn't  a  dream!"  shouted 


[93] 


Barty.  "And  it  isn't — it  isn't — it  isn't! 
Hooray!  Hooray!  Hooray!'  And  he 
jumped  up  and  down  and  laughed  for  joy, 
and  stamped  and  stamped  and  stamped. 
Then  they  all  crowded  round  him  as  if 
they  felt  just  as  happy  as  he  did. 

"Didn't  you  want  us  before?"  they  said. 
"What  a  long  time  you  were  in  calling  us." 

"I  lost  my  whip,"  answered  Barty,  and 
when  they  all  cried  out  "Oh-h-h!':  he 
suddenly  felt  as  if  he  must  turn  round  and 
look  behind,  and  when  he  did  it  he  saw 
that  the  nicest  thing  in  the  world  had  hap 
pened.  There  sat  the  Good  Wolf  near 


the  bushes,  smiling  at  him.  He  could  not 
help  running  to  him  and  hugging  him. 

"Oh,  I  am  glad!  I  am  glad!"  he  said. 
"  This  is  the  nicest  thing  of  all ! " 

"It  is  nice,"  answered  the  Good  Wolf. 
"I  was  hunting  in  Russia  and  I  wasn't  sure 
I  could  come.  But  I  must  attend  to  this 
whip  business." 

He  shook  his  blue  ear  and  a  narrow, 
rather  long  ivory  box  fell  out. 

"That  is  a  whip  box,"  he  said,  and  he 
began  to  scratch  in  the  earth  until  he  made 
a  rather  deep  hole  under  a  bush.  "Now," 
he  said,  "whenever  you  have  done  with 


your  whip  you  must  lock  it  in  that  box  and 
put  it  in  this  hole,  and  you  will  always 
know  where  to  find  it." 

"I  will  never  forget,"  said  Barty. 

The  circus  they  had  that  morning  was 
ten  times  as  nice  as  the  one  they  had  had 
before. 

"Oh,  what  fun  it  would  be,"  said  Barty, 
"if  we  had  a  little  clown."  He  wasn't 
hinting  in  the  least,  he  only  said  it  because 
it  just  came  into  his  head,  and  he  had  no 
sooner  said  it  than  the  Good  Wolf  walked 
forward. 

"Now  I  should  like  to  know,"  he  said, 


[95] 


"why  I  never  thought  once  of  that.  It 
was  perfectly  ridiculous  of  me." 

He  gave  his  pink  ear  a  flip  and  out  flew 
a  tiny  clown  in  baggy  white  trousers  with 
his  hands  stuck  in  the  pockets,  and  a  frill 
round  his  neck  and  a  red  and  white  painted 
face.  And  he  turned  sixteen  somersaults 
one  after  the  other  and  bounced  onto  his 
feet  and  stuck  out  his  tongue,  and  said  in 
a  cracked  little  shrill  voice  just  like  a  big 
clown:  "Here  we  are  again,  sir.  How 
are  you  to-morrow?' 

And  this  was  such  a  tremendous  joke 
that  it  was  not  only  Barty  who  laughed 


[96] 


till  he  rolled  over,  but  every  single  little 
animal  laughed  till  it  rolled  over,  and  the 
grass  was  just  covered  with  little  elephants 
and  lions  and  tigers  and  bears  and  the 
rest,  rolling  about  and  holding  their  sides. 
There  is  no  knowing  when  they  would 
have  stopped,  but  in  the  midst  of  it  the 
Good  Wolf  shook  his  blue  ear  and  out  flew 
the  prettiest  little  circus  lady  in  the  world. 
She  had  pink  tights  on  and  wore  so  many 
short  gauzy  spangled  skirts  that  she  looked 
like  a  fairy,  and  she  whirled  round  and 
round  on  the  very  tips  of  her  toes,  and 
sprang  onto  the  backs  of  two  of  the  pret- 


[97] 


tiest  horses — one  foot  on  each  back — and 
went  galloping  round  the  ring  like  light 
ning,  smiling  and  kissing  her  hand  to 
everybody. 

That  was  why  the  circus  was  ten  times 
nicer  than  it  had  been  before.  Everything 
was  there.  And  Barty  went  on  being  ring 
master  and  the  circus  grew  more  and  more 
delightful  and  more  and  more  exciting, 
until  at  last  the  whole  entertainment  was 
tired  and  had  to  sit  down  and  rest  and 
fan  itself  because  it  was  actually  hot. 

They  all  sat  in  a  circle,  and  because 
none  of  the  animals  were  as  big  as  kittens, 


[98] 


Baity  looked  like  a  very  pretty  giant  with 
rosy  cheeks  and  curly  hair.  The  animals 
had  grown  so  fond  of  him  that  they  all  sat 
and  looked  at  him  affectionately,  and  the 
nearest  elephant  and  lion  perfectly  cuddled 
up  against  him.  The  beautiful  little  lady 
circus  rider  perched  on  his  hand  and  the 
clown  sat  down  on  his  shoe. 

"I  am  very  glad  to  have  made  your  ac 
quaintance,"  the  little  lady  said.  "I  ad 
mire  you  very  much.  You  make  a  most 
delightful  ringmaster." 

"We  all  like  him,"  said  the  biggest  little 
lion.  "And  we  all  mean  to  stand  by  him. 


I  came  to  him  from  the  Nubian  desert  this 
morning,  and  it  is  a  long  way  off." 

"I  love  every  one  of  you,"  said  Barty. 
"I  don't  believe  there  is  any  other  boy  in 
the  world  who  has  such  delightful  friends." 

He  stroked  the  lion's  side,  and  he  was 
just  going  to  put  his  cheek  against  his 
mane,  when  he  stopped  suddenly  and 
stared  with  wide  open  eyes  at  the  long  nar 
row  opening  in  the  big  rock  at  the  other 
side  of  the  green  circus.  A  thin,  wicked 
face  with  evil  shining  black  eyes  was  peer 
ing  out  and  watching  him  and  his  animals. 

He  started  so  that   he  almost  dropped 


the  little  lion.  And  that  minute  he  saw 
another  thin  wicked  face,  and  another 
above  that  and  another  above  that,  all 
glaring  at  him.  And  the  owner  of  the 
first  wicked  face  began  to  wriggle  his  long 
body  through  the  narrow  slit,  and  in  about 
two  minutes  he  had  wriggled  his  way  out 
and  stood  grinning,  with  swords  and  pis 
tols  and  knives  hung  at  his  belt. 

"He  is  a  thin  robber!"  gasped  Barty. 
"I  knew  a  fat  one  could  never  get  in  and 
out.  It  is  a  Robber's  Cave." 


[101] 


CHAPTER    FIVE 

O  find  that  your  secret  play 
ground  has  a  robber's  cave 
in  it  is  very  startling.  Barty 
stood  up  quickly  and  so  did 
all  the  little  animals.  At 
first  Barty  thought  they 
might  suddenly  grow  big, 
as  the  Good  Wolf  had  said  they  would  if 
they  saw  a  grown-up  person.  But  they 
did  not.  And  if  they  had  looked  as  small 
as  kittens  when  they  were  compared  with 


[105] 


a  boy,  they  looked  almost  as  small  as 
mice  when  they  were  compared  with  a 
long,  thin  robber.  In  fact,  they  looked 
so  tiny  that  Barty  was  afraid  they  would 
be  hurt. 

"You  had  better  run  off  into  the  forest 
as  fast  as  you  can  before  he  wriggles  all 
the  way  out,"  he  said  quickly  to  the 
biggest  little  lion. 

"No,  we  won't,"  the  lion  answered. 
"Not  much.  We  are  going  to  stop  and 
see  the  fun." 

Barty  was  afraid  there  might  not  be 
much  fun,  but  when  he  saw  the  lion 


[106] 


slowly  wink  one  eye  at  him  and  then  saw 
another  lion  wink,  and  a  tiger  and  ele 
phant  wink  too,  until  each  animal  in  the 
circus  had  winked,  he  began  to  see  that 
something  queer  was  going  to  happen. 
But  he  could  not  imagine  what  it  was 
going  to  be,  because  they  all  huddled 
round  his  feet  as  if  they  were  frightened, 
and  even  shook  and  shivered. 

When  the  first  robber  had  wriggled 
through  the  slit  in  the  rock,  another  one 
began  to  wriggle  through,  and  then  an 
other  and  another  until  there  were  no  less 
than  four  robbers  standing  scowling  at  him. 


[107] 


"Hello!"  said  the  biggest  one,  who  was 
the  captain,  and  had  a  feather  sticking  in 
his  hat  and  at  least  four  pistols  and  six 
swords  hanging  at  his  belt.  "Here's  a 
rich  kid!  He's  just  what  we  were  looking 
for.  He's  got  the  finest  lot  of  mechanical 
toys  I  ever  saw  in  my  life.  Just  look  at 
those  lions  lashing  their  tails." 

That  made  Barty  very  angry.  He  felt 
as  if  his  friends  were  being  insulted,  and 
he  strode  forward  and  stood  before  them. 

"They  are  not  toys!"  he  shouted  out. 
"They  are  as  real  as  you  are!  They  are 
my  intimate  friends.  Go  away!" 


[108] 


The  robbers  burst  out  laughing. 

"They  are  not  toys!"  they  said.  "Real 
lions  and  tigers  and  elephants  half  as  big 
as  kittens!" 

"If  they  are  real,  make  the  lion  roar/' 
said  the  robber  captain,  grinning. 

"Oh  do  roar!  Please  roar!"  said  Barty 
to  the  lions.  "Perhaps  it  will  frighten 
them." 

The  biggest  little  lion  winked  at  him 
again  quite  as  if  he  were  having  a  joke, 
and  he  turned  round  and  roared.  But  it 
was  such  a  little  roar  that  Barty  could  not 
help  knowing  that  it  sounded  like  a  toy 


[  109] 


roar.  And  the  robbers  laughed  louder 
than  ever. 

"Good  Wolf!  Good  Wolf! "  he  called 
out,  and  turned  to  look  for  him.  But 
there  was  no  wolf  there — only  a  big,  white 
furry  dog,  who  looked  so  innocent  that  he 
would  frighten  nobody. 

The  captain  slapped  his  knee. 

"Never  since  I  was  a  robber  have  I  seen 
such  toys!"  he  cried.  "We  can  sell  them 
to  a  king  for  their  weight  in  gold.  These 
two  are  mine — and  I  will  take  the  dog." 
And  he  picked  up  a  little  lion  in  one 
hand  and  a  little  tiger  in  another. 


[no] 


"You  shall  not  touch  them!"  cried  out 
Barty.  "You  shall  not  touch — "  But  he 
stopped  in  the  middle  of  saying  it  because 
the  something  very  queer  was  beginning 
to  happen.  It  began  that  very  minute. 

The  robber  captain  standing  in  the 
middle  of  the  ring  suddenly  turned  pale. 
He  looked  so  frightened  that  the  other 
robbers  did  not  pick  up  anything,  and 
stood  and  stared  at  him  with  their  mouths 
open. 

"What's  the  matter?"  he  shouted  out. 
"They  are  growing  heavier.  I  can't  hold 
them.  They  are  swelling!  They  arc 


swelling ! '     and  he  dropped  both  the  lion 
and  the  tiger  on  the  grass. 

And  Barty  saw  that  they  were  swelling. 
First  they  swelled  until  they  were  as  big 
as  cats,  then  they  swelled  until  they  were 
as  big  as  dogs,  then  they  were  as  big  as 
pigs,  then  they  were  as  big  as  calves,  and 
the  next  second  they  were  as  big  as  the 
hugest  lion  and  tiger  in  a  menagerie,  and 
the  other  lions,  and  tigers,  and  leopards 
were  as  big  as  they  were.  The  elephants 
and  rhinoceroses  and  hippopotamuses  had 
to  go  outside  the  hedge  to  swell  because 
there  wasn't  room  inside.  But  they  put 


f!I2j 


their  big  heads  through  the  bushes  so  that 
there  was  no  mistake  about  their  being 
there. 

You  can  just  imagine  how  frightening 
it  was  to  the  robbers  to  find  themselves 
suddenly  surrounded  by  roaring  lions,  and 
tigers,  and  leopards,  and  huge  trampling 
elephants  and  hippopotamuses  instead  of 
tiny  toy  creatures  they  thought  they  could 
pick  up  and  carry  away.  If  Barty  had 
not  known  that  all  of  them  were  his 
particular  friends  he  would  have  been 
frightened  too.  The  robbers  stood  in  the 
midst  of  them  all  and  howled  with  fright. 


"Call  them  off!  Call  them  off!"  they 
shouted  to  Barty  because  they  saw  he 
was  really  the  ring-master,  "we  will  never 
do  it  again!  Never — never — never — 
never-r-r ! ' 

The  captain  tried  to  dart  to  the  crack 
in  the  rock  and  wriggle  through,  but  the 
biggest  lion  put  out  a  huge  paw  and 
dragged  him  back  by  the  seat  of  his  trousers. 
He  laid  him  flat  on  the  grass  and  put  the 
huge  paw  on  him  and  roared  and  roared. 

"I  wouldn't  kill  him,"  cried  Barty. 
"  Perhaps  he  is  sorry." 

"We  are  all  sorry,"  the  robbers  sobbed. 


"We  are  sorrier  than  we  ever  were  before 
in  our  lives! ' 

"I'll  see  that  they  are  sorry  enough," 
said  the  biggest  lion,  but  of  course  it 
was  only  Barty  who  understood  what 
he  said.  The  robbers  thought  he  was 
roaring  and  their  knees  knocked  to 
gether. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  to  them  ?  " 
asked  Barty. 

"Watch!"  answered  the  lion. 

He  made  a  sign  to  his  mate  and  two 
tigers,  and  each  of  them  took  up  a  robber 
by  his  trousers  and  shook  him  as  if  he 


[us] 


were  a  rat.  Their  legs  flew  and  their 
arms  flew  until  they  looked  as  if  they 
would  fly  to  pieces,  and  they  had  not  even 
the  strength  to  yell  with.  Of  course  it 
must  have  been  most  disagreeable  and 
breath-taking,  but  it  served  them  perfectly 
right,  for  if  you  are  a  robber  I  should  like 
to  know  what  you  expect. 

When  the  shaking  was  over,  and  the 
lions  and  tigers  laid  the  robbers  on  the 
ground  again,  they  did  look  queer.  You 
see  the  bones  had  nearly  been  shaken  out 
of  their  bodies  and  the  teeth  out  of  their 
mouths,  and  the  hair  had  been  shaken  off 


[116] 


their  heads,  every  bit  of  it,  and  they  were 
quite  bald. 

"Now,"  said  the  biggest  lion  to  Barty, 
"you  can  tell  them  we  are  going  to  give 
them  a  nice  bit  of  a  run  through  the  forest; 
and  if  they  can  get  away  from  us  this  time 
they  may  as  well  give  one  hour  a  day  in 
the  future  to  remembering  that  if  they 
come  near  this  cave  any  more  they  won't 
get  away  again.  They  might  do  their  re 
membering  from  five  to  six  every  morning." 

So  Barty  told  them,  but  when  he  had  ex 
plained  they  were  more  frightened  than  ever. 

"We  never  can  get  away  from  them," 


C"7] 


the  robber  captain  said,  wiping  his  eyes  on 
his  sleeve.  "We  are  too  nervous  to  run, 
and  our  knees  keep  knocking  together. 
Ask  him  if  he  won't  let  us  off  easier  than 
that.  There's  not  one  of  us  who  would 
think  of  coming  back  here.  Never — 
never — never !  ' 

He  was  in  such  a  state  that  Barty 
actually  began  to  feel  sorry  for  him.  He 
turned  and  spoke  to  the  lion. 

"How  would  it  do,"  he  inquired, 
"if  they  stopped  being  robbers  and  were 
something  nicer  instead — bakers  or  hair 
dressers  or  pew  openers?" 


[H8] 


"We    wilU       We    will!       We    will!' 
shouted  out  the  robbers. 

"I  never  wanted  to  be  a  robber," 
sobbed  the  captain.  "I  always  wanted 

to    be    a     toy-shop    man.      I'm    fond  of 

>» 
toys. 

"And  I  wanted  to  be  a  confectioner," 
said  another  robber. 

"And  I  wanted  to  learn  to  play  the 
harp!"  cried  another. 

"And  it  nearly  broke  my  heart,"  said 
the  fourth,  "because  I  wasn't  allowed  to 
be  a  gardener,  and  grow  violets  and  sweet 
peas." 


["9] 


"Well,"  said  the  lion  to  Barty,  "tell 
them  to  go  away  and  be  anything  they 
like  that  is  decent." 

"Wait  a  minute,"  said  the  Good  Wolf, 
stepping  forward.  "Ask  them  if  they 
haven't  had  a  great  many  adventures." 

"Yes,  thousands  of  them,"  the  captain 
answered  when  Barty  asked  him.  "We've 
been  so  many  things;  we've  been  pirates 
and  gold-diggers,  and  we've  sailed  the 
Spanish  Main  and  things  like  that.  We 
could  tell  stories  for  years  if  you'd  like  to 
hear  them,  and  if  your  friends  would  not 
mind  if  we  came  back  here  occasionally — 


[120] 


in  our  best  clothes — after  we've  quite 
stopped  being  robbers." 

"O,  let  them — let  them!'  Barty  cried 
out  joyfully. 

"That  was  what  I  was  thinking  of," 
said  the  Good  Wolf.  "There  is  nothing 
more  entertaining  than  a  tame  pirate  or 
robber." 

"Tell  them,"  said  the  lion,  "that  they 
may  come  back  twice  a  week.  They  shall 
be  called  <The  Combined  Robbers  and 
Pirates  Story-telling  Club.'  And  we  shall 
be  here  to  listen — and  see  that  they  be 
have  themselves." 


[I2IJ 


So  it  was  agreed  that  the  robbers  should 
be  allowed  to  go  away  and  begin  working 
as  hard  as  possible  at  not  being  robbers. 
And  they  were  so  relieved  that  they  were 
going  to  slip  off  as  quietly  as  they  could, 
touching  their  hats  meekly  to  everybody, 
but  Barty  could  not  help  shaking  hands 
with  the  captain  just  to  encourage  him  a 
little. 

"I  was  frightened  at  first,"  he  said, 
"but  it  has  all  turned  out  to  be  so  nice 
that  I  am  very  glad  you  came.*' 

When  they  were  gone  he  sat  down  and 
fanned  himself  with  his  hat,  and  the  great 


[122] 


big  lions  and  tigers  standing  round  him 
made  him  look  very  little  indeed. 

"Could  you  get  small  again,  please?" 
he  said.  "I'm  not  a  bit  frightened,  but 
you  are  rather  too  big  for  my  size." 

Every  one  of  them  began  to  un-swell 
that  moment,  and  they  got  smaller  and 
smaller,  and  smaller  and  smaller,  until  they 
were  just  the  right  size  again — Snow  Feast 
size — and  they  sat  down  in  a  ring  around 
Barty;  and  the  circus  lady  crept  out  from 
under  a  leaf  and  sat  on  his  shoulder,  and 
the  clown  crawled  out  of  the  bushes 
and  sat  down  on  his  foot  again — but 


C"3] 


not  before  he  had  turned  twenty  somer 
saults. 

"Well,"  chuckled  Barty,  fanning  away, 
"you  did  stand  by  me,  didn't  you?  And 
it  has  been  a  'normous  adventure.  I  shall 
so  like  to  lie  awake  and  think  of  it.  I 
know  now  why  you  all  winked  at  me,  and 
said  you  were  going  to  stay  to  see  the 
fun." 

And  they  all  laughed  like  anything — 
the  Good  Wolf  more  than  all  the  rest. 

In  fact,  they  laughed  and  laughed  and 
laughed  until  they  could  scarcely  stop 
themselves,  and  when  at  last  it  was  time 


for  Barty  to  go  home,  and  he  said  good- 
by  to  them,  and  the  little  elephants  threw 
up  their  trunks  and  trumpeted  for  him  as 
if  he  were  a  king  going  back  to  his  palace, 
he  ran  down  the  path  in  the  wood  chuck 
ling  to  himself  nearly  all  the  way. 

"Oh!  "  he  said,  "what  wonderful  things 
happen  in  the  deep  forest  where  things 
sing  and  things  build  nests  and  burrow  in 
the  earth,  and  make  little  warm  caves  to 
live  in." 


THE     END 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


u> 


JUN  1 3  1983 


315 


3  1 158  00865  T 


A    000138858     6 


